TigerandDog Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, madmitch said: This idea has beem mooted before. It should work fine, depending upon how it's collected. I would guess the most logical way would be for an additional 100 baht tax on air tickets into Thailand. and the amount should only be used as a last resort and not replace proper travel insurance. This would of course mean that not only tourists are paying but also Thais travelling overseas and expats but this additional would make up the shortfall from those entering overland woudn't pay. But who knows? The combined brain power of the Ministry of Tourism will no doubt come up with a much more convoluted system. Once again comments based on absolute rubbish and speculation. 5 or 6 years it was made compulsory for ALL tourists to have travel insurance. As I previously posted, you had to show proof of travel insurance when passing through immigration. If you did not have TI, then you would be given 2 options, buy insurance on the spot or be denied entry. As usual the Thai authorities brought in a mandatory requirement but FAILED to actually enforce. They don't need to have any kind of surcharge for TI, they only need to enforce their existing mandatory requirements. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Percy P Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 2 minutes ago, potless said: Or charge everyone 100 baht. Together with the departure charge of 700 Baht. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Percy P Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 8 minutes ago, potless said: Or charge everyone 100 baht. Together with the 700 Baht Airport departure fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDfella Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 I wonder what it will say on the receipt? Well, that is, if tourists get one., ha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metisdead Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Off topic posts and replies have been removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttrd Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Mango Bob said: So they are looking to make a profit out of this. Yeah, 30m tourists/year (30mx100) gives 3 billion/thb - and around 10% is estimated to be used so yes a significant profit. RE - Whether Thailand would adopt a charge for tourists coming in or leaving was still to be decided. So if charged when leaving it will be interesting to know how those who died will pay the fee ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potless Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 2 minutes ago, Percy P said: Together with the 700 Baht Airport departure fee. A genuine question. Can you please help me to understand what the connection is between the 700 baht departure tax and the 100 baht for unpaid hospital bills ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony125 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Peterbilt said: Only 100 BHT? Come on Generals, you can do much better! A lousy 3.8 bn BHT won't cover everything caused by those evil aliens who dare to get sick / injured or even die in the land of premium quality tourism. Set it to 1,000 BHT with yearly increases of 200 BHT to compensate the always rising costs in the medical sector. They read these forums , don't give them any ideas ! I think 150 ---300 baht would be fair . Profit could be used to send those in overstay jail home 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianthainess Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 So they can go to any hospital and receive free treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terminatorchiangmai Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Mandatory insurance for Travel agents / tourist attractions cost max 25 baht per day and covers 500.000 in accidents and 1.000.000 in case of death or staying disabled. Thailand is already a La La land so they should make mandatory insurance for all visitors because many tour operators not do. TAT don't care if you make insurance for 100 people but process 3.000 a year, they only want to see a contract with minimum 6 months left on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocddave Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Let's see... 300 million a year in unpaid hospital bills... (maybe!) vs potentially 3.8 billion in revenues from the proposed tourist tax Oh look, 3.5 Billion baht in corruption looking for a place to happen.....I can just imagine the line waiting at this trough.....Amazing Thailand, more like Predictable Thailand, money is their God. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suradit69 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, trainman34014 said: 300 million baht a year ? Another number from the Thai number factory, where any number that sounds big enough will do ! Less than US$ 10 million a year is hardly unbelievable. There have been numerous reports of individuals running up charges of around Baht 1 million and undoubtedly many unreported smaller amounts. Aside from tourists who seem to be accident prone, many elderly retirees require lengthy, expensive stays in hospital but have no financial resources. The amounts of unpaid medical services bills have been reported often over the years. As far as government statistics go (any government's) these seem to be easily reasonable. On the other hand your knee jerk reaction was hardly the result of hours of research. Currently unpaid hospital bills mean that those of us who do pay our bills are charged more to cover the losses created by others. On 5/15/2019 at 6:44 AM, webfact said: According to a straw poll on the Thaivisa Facebook page, which at the time of publishing had received over 3,000 votes, 69 percent of respondents voted ‘Yes’ when asked “do you think foreigners aged over 50 should be required to have health insurance in order to stay in Thailand?” Edited May 24, 2019 by Suradit69 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harleyclarkey Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Are my maths correct? 38 million tourists grace Thailand with their choice of destination and spend their money. Let's say each spends B5,000 per day (https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2017/06/factsheet-toerisme-in-thailand.pdf).....or 50,000 Baht for a 10-day stay. This is a spend of 1.9 TRILLION Baht (estimate for 2019 is 2.21 Trillion!) and they cost the Thais a miserly 300 million Baht. Get real Thailand....or maybe you just have it far too easy. Or would I be too much of a sceptic to think the 3.8 Billion Baht in the insurance take is actually for other pockets? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orton Rd Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Not much more than a scam, does anybody really thing they will be forking about about one million baht to have the very ill and bodies sent back home? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dallen52 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Pilotman said: what a good idea. No, I'm not being sarcastic. Agree. It's like £2 or $5 Australian. Should be mandatory for some regulated cover for everyone. We could at least fall back on the 30 baht scheme that the Thais use in public hospital. (My last visit to Pattaya Public hospital required me to put 50,000 baht cash down, before admission) The next gripe will be tourists using the Thai public hospital system. Even though they are insured... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GalaxyMan Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, madmitch said: I would guess the most logical way would be for an additional 100 baht tax on air tickets into Thailand. Why only air travelers? It should apply to everybody entering the country, no matter where or how they do so. I think it's a great idea, assuming they actually use the money as they're supposed to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin612 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Okay, you need to give us cheap health insurance in return. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Changbeer4me Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 4 hours ago, JohnOFphon said: Didn't there used to be a departure tax? I remember going to a machine and paying 500 bt for a ticket that had to be shown,,,at check in or passport control...don't remember which. Yeah It was put into ticket prices so they already getting 500 and now want more as price not been settled on yet. It was a pain to remember to have the 500 baht set aside. Many got caught out. Strange the media did not report that part of story. Changbeer4me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo2014 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Gosh I wonder if that money will ever reach a hospital. Here is an idea. Stop killing or injuring so many tourists. Put the money towards the safety of the beaches and roads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesofa Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Just now, Jimbo2014 said: Gosh I wonder if that money will ever reach a hospital. Here is an idea. Stop killing or injuring so many tourists. Put the money towards the safety of the beaches and roads! Just stop it! You're using logic again, it'll never catch on here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerkinsCuthbert Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 5 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said: Let's see... 300 million a year in unpaid hospital bills... (maybe!) vs potentially 3.8 billion in revenues from the proposed tourist tax And what exactly kind of coverage are these Thailand travelers going to get for their 100 baht??? BTW, it doesn't seem to specify any particular kind of arrival/visa class... So presumably, either on entry or exit, they're planning to charge any and all foreigners, including long-term expats here who may already have insurance.... I didn't see any mention of any exemption for O-A visa holders who likely will be subject to the new and much more expensive insurance requirement of their own. Or any plan to drop the O-A specific proposal in favor on this broader, more reasonably priced alternative. The clue is in the word 'tourist' in the heading. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo369 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 2 hours ago, recom273 said: OMG .. I forgot about that! It was a nightmare trying to juggle your last nights finances to make sure you had enough for a taxi and departure tax. People used to wander around Don Muang trying to scrape enough for the machine (I think it was a machine, it was like more than 15 years ago) .. what a blast from the past. More than 15 years, I can remember 20 years ago for 500 bht tax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianezy0 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 makes perfect sense. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PerkinsCuthbert Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 1 minute ago, Davo369 said: More than 15 years, I can remember 20 years ago for 500 bht tax Departure tax is almost universally levied, though as you say it is mostly accounted these days in the price of the ticket, rather than in a separate kiosk before immigration as it used to be - except in more backward countries. Departure tax is justified as a charge for improvement and maintenance of air travel infrastructure, and as such is irrelevant to this new proposal, which is about health insurance - except insofar as you may choose to believe this charge too goes into the pockets of the wrong people - about which I couldn't possibly comment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin case Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 "This, they said, is costing the country 300 million baht a year. " but now they expect to get 3.8 billion baht and they still want to do insurance SCAM why nobody of those asswipes came up with this idea decades ago oh, I forgot, people already pay tax, calculated in the ticket 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaiyen Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 5 hours ago, JohnOFphon said: Didn't there used to be a departure tax? I remember going to a machine and paying 500 bt for a ticket that had to be shown,,,at check in or passport control...don't remember which. It went up to 700 baht in the end and is now included in your ticket price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilotman Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 34 minutes ago, harleyclarkey said: Are my maths correct? 38 million tourists grace Thailand with their choice of destination and spend their money. Let's say each spends B5,000 per day (https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2017/06/factsheet-toerisme-in-thailand.pdf).....or 50,000 Baht for a 10-day stay. This is a spend of 1.9 TRILLION Baht (estimate for 2019 is 2.21 Trillion!) and they cost the Thais a miserly 300 million Baht. Get real Thailand....or maybe you just have it far too easy. Or would I be too much of a sceptic to think the 3.8 Billion Baht in the insurance take is actually for other pockets? most of the tourists right now are Indian and Chinese, Many are on pre- paid organised tours and won't spend anywhere near 5K a day. Too many western tourists are pitching up with no insurance and then acting like idiots, ( renting motorbikes without licence and no travel insurance) and then expect some 'Go Fund' process to bail them out when it all goes wrong. Good on the Thais for starting to tackle it. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogNo1 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 I think that the assumption that the 100 Baht insurance fee for all arriving tourists would somehow provide each of them a type of insurance policy is wrong. It is likely that it will do no such thing. The money is likely to be used to reimburse hospitals and other medical providers for the unpaid bills left by tourists and little else. Tourists will probably still be responsible for paying for their own health care. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtrnuno41 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Well have another idea to add. Let all tourists pay CO2 tax. WIth the 38 million visitors coming to Thailand, Thailand has an increasing CO2 problem. All those people are exhaling CO2, so rises the CO2 exhaust in Thailand. AH , just googled it , many countries are working on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 This pot of money will be ripe for corruption.... didnt know Thailand was paying for remains to be returned home...I wonder how they decide to fund who? Like death caused by another party at fault vs self demise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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